This month’s releases are finally up, and book lovers can close out the second-to-last month of 2026 with a huge pile of great reads! While everyone is giving their favorite reads of the year, your next favorite can be found in this highlighted list! Discover how the telephone became such a revolutionary invention, or read queer love involving dragons. This November will leave readers with their bellies full and their minds enriched (metaphorically, of course; we’ll let our Thanksgiving dinner do the belly filling):

Featured Book of the Month

Jane Austen’s The Watsons by Claudia Gray

Expected Publication Date: November 17

The unsung heroine of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel The Watsons is a privileged girl living with her wealthy aunt and uncle absent any meaningful contact with her birth family. Then her life abruptly gets turned upside down: Her uncle dies, and her aunt remarries unwisely, which means she must return to Wiltshire and rejoin the greater Watson clan. There, she becomes an object of desire for the most eligible bachelor in the county, the proud Lord Osborne . . . but her own fascination alights upon Mr. Howard, the local clergyman. In the hundred pages Austen wrote before abandoning the novel, she asks: Can the youngest Watson sister afford to neglect the fortunes of her struggling family to truly follow her heart?

But Austen never completed this book—and therefore, her devoted fans have never discovered the answer, leaving the heroine’s fate undefined and open to speculation. Until now, as bestselling author Claudia Gray expands this story into a vivid tale of love, sorrow, social class, honor, and, as in any Austen novel, the ways these all become intertwined for a young woman in Regency-era England. Transforming The Watsons from an unpolished draft into a riveting ensemble novel filled with romance, humor, and social commentary, Gray recaptures the spirit of Austen’s most enigmatic story. (Credit: Vintage)

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Recruitment by K.A. Riley

Your seventeenth birthday is the last day you can count on. No one makes plans for eighteen.

In the Valta, everyone turns a year older on November 1st. Turn seventeen, and the Recruiters come for you.

No one ever hears from you again.

Today, Kress is sixteen. Tomorrow, she’ll find out why.

Taken alongside her best friend and Brohn–the enigmatic boy she’s spent her life avoiding–Kress is thrust into weeks of brutal training. Hand-to-hand combat. Escape rooms. Psychological tests that leave her questioning everything.

The Recruiters say they’re preparing her to win a war. But the harder they push, the less their story makes sense.

With her trained raven, Render, left behind, Kress must navigate a place where every instruction raises another question–and the people demanding her trust refuse to give her answers. (Credit: Sourcebooks Fire)

She knows what they’re training her to do.

What she doesn’t know is why.

The Gentleman, the Cat & the Tearoom Volume 1 by Molicoross

Meet shy gentleman Taki and his cat, Keemun. They brighten the day of stressed customers with lovely pastries and a warm cuppa in this delightful slice-of-life manga–perfect for tea and cat lovers.

In a little café tucked between city buildings, a gentleman and his cat have carved out a quiet space of comfort and calm. Taki, the soft-spoken owner of the tearoom, runs the small café with the help of his cat, Keemun.

Together, they greet customers, serve the perfect pairing of tea and snack, and help visitors with whatever ails them–often with nothing more than a gentle conversation and one of Taki’s meticulously brewed cups of tea.

But Keemun isn’t the only reason people wander into the café. A dashing older gentleman who always seems to know exactly what to serve is a treat in his own right. Despite his shyness, Taki has a gift for reading others and understanding the quiet weariness they carry, offering warmth and reassurance with every cup. (Credit: Kana)

This Jury Is Guilty by Laurie Blake

Everyone is Watching meets Twelve Angry Men in a tense and twisty locked-room thriller where, sequestered together until the Hollywood trial is closed, a jury must decide the fate of an actor accused of attempted murder, but this jury has explosive secrets, and one of them is about to get away with a murder of their own.

No one here is innocent.

Hollywood’s biggest movie star, Danny Scott, stands accused of trying to murder his wife, starlet Hope Harrison, in a case that has taken the world by storm. Everyone is asking: What led to the events of that night, and what darker truths simmer beneath the surface of Danny and Hope’s marriage? As the world watches, twelve sequestered jurors must decide Danny’s fate. But even a jury has its secrets…

Juror 6 is risking everything for this trial. Even her life.

Juror 2 is playing games. But can he keep one step ahead of his own lies?

Juror 13, the alternate, will do anything to be on that jury. Anything.

Juror 7 is hardly noticed by anyone. Just as she planned.

As each juror vies for the verdict they want, secrets, obsessions, and plots for revenge will come to light in the stands. Because everyone is lying. Everyone is guilty. And one of them might be planning a murder of their own.

With shocking twists and propulsive pacing, This Jury Is Guilty is a thought-provoking, locked-room thriller exploring our obsessions with true crime, the blurry lines between fact and fiction, and the lengths we’re willing to go to seek justice. For fans of Amy Tintera, Steve Cavanagh, and Ellery Lloyd. (Credit: Sourcebooks Landmark)

Gone by Mo Hayder

He watches. He waits. He takes what isn’t his.

Detective Inspector Jack Caffery’s newest case seems like a routine carjacking, a crime he’s seen plenty of times before. But as the hours tick by and tormenting letters arrive from the carjacker, he realizes the sickening truth: the thief wasn’t after the car, but the 11-year-old girl in the backseat. Who is still missing.

Meanwhile, police diver Sergeant Flea Marley is pursuing her own theory of the case, and what she finds in an abandoned, half-submerged tunnel in rural Gloucestershire could put her in grave danger. The carjacker is always a step ahead of the Major Crime Investigation Unit, and Caffery is certain that he is planning to take another car. And another child. As the clock ticks down, Jack and Flea race to fit the pieces together before it’s too late.

Gone is Mo Hayder at her terrifying best. Each dark and captivating twist reveals a new dimension to this tight-knit plot, burrowing deeper into the chilling and clever world Hayder creates. (Credit: Atlantic Crime)

Sassy Cats by Yamada Murasaki

With those piercing eyes and flicks of the tail, house cats observe domesticity poetically, and with sass

“My first time, it wasn’t just kittens that I birthed, but also me as a mother. So, in raising them, I’m also raising myself…and both are serious business, let me tell you.”

These are the simple musings of a house cat, sprawled on a veranda in the sun, while birds flit and flutter by. These are also the personal reflections of cartoonist Yamada Murasaki.

While Yamada’s books Talk To My Back and Second Hand Love engaged candidly with the trials of marriage, motherhood, and romance, Sassy Cats pads around similar terrain with the poetry of soft, feline paws.

Originally serialized from 1979 to 1980 in the legendary alternative magazine Garo, Sassy Cats is a classic of both feminist manga and Japanese cat literature. This English edition is translated by Ryan Holmberg and includes an essay by the artist’s daughter Yamada Yu about her mom, cats, and growing up with a single-mother cartoonist. (Credit: Drawn and Quarterly)

Grieft Talking by Greg Wise

Much-loved actor, author and screenwriter, Greg Wise, offers his personal experiences with loss and encourages us to be more open in our own. Grief shapes us but we can learn from it. Through honesty, vulnerability and ritual we can navigate the chaotic, messy journey of bereavement.

Wise explores traumatic grief – the sudden drowning of a close friend in his twenties; intergenerational trauma and the sorrow that can be passed down through families; the emotional aftermath of his sister’s death from cancer; and anticipatory grief – the pain of infertility and failed IVF when cherished hopes are dashed and we grieve a loss before it is born.

Greg offers solace and understanding through his own moving stories. He advocates for a change in our modern suppressive culture of mourning. Instead, we should allow ourselves and others an open healthy processing of grief so we can become kinder, more connected and experience happiness again.

Whether you’re struggling to articulate your feelings or supporting a loved one through loss, Grief Talking will show you that you are not alone. (Credit: Bluebird)

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Living Twice by Maxie Dara

He’s been charged with possession before, but never like this.

Jack McCoy was a thief and a liar. Then he died.

Margaret Chen transported souls for the biggest afterlife collection company in North America. Then she met Jack.

Possession isn’t really supposed to be possible, but Jack McCoy never let a little thing like reality stop him. Now he’s committing the ultimate identity theft, living a new life in Margaret’s body while his own lies six feet under. Keeping up appearances as a geriatric grim reaper for S.C.Y.T.H.E. is a full-time job, but when Jack is sent to collect the soul of an old friend, his criminal past catches up with him and suddenly he’s planning the heist of his (after)life with a gang of misfits he never thought he’d see again.

Now the only woman he’s ever loved depends on his success in stealing a priceless list of souls from S.C.Y.T.H.E., but someone keeps beating him at his own game. Time is running out. If Jack puts one bunioned foot out of line it will cost him not only the people who matter most but also his second chance at life… (Credit: Berkley)

The Friday Bookshop by Sawako Natori

When college student Fumiya visits the Friday Bookshop as a last-ditch effort to find a book for his ill father, he is disappointed in its ordinary appearance despite whispers of its peculiar charm. But he soon discovers that it not only includes a café where the food menu changes daily on the chef’s whim but also a vast underground vault lined with bookshelves, lovingly converted from an old abandoned subway platform. The bookshop, run by a quirky trio who have been close friends since high school, quickly becomes Fumiya’s favorite place—so much so that he begins to work there part-time.

Fumiya, who was never really a reader, learns to embrace the joy of reading, and that books can be a means to connect with other people and navigate the twists and turns of life.

Through colorful interactions with the zany shop owners and their visitors, as well as mouthwatering dishes inspired by the books the owners recommend, it’s impossible not to fall in love with the seemingly ordinary yet enchanting little bookstore in the subway station in Kanto. (Credit: Berkley)

Sweet Pea by Kit de Waal

When Paulette arrived in England as a young girl, she left behind a grandmother in St. Kitts who called her “Sweet Pea,” taught her to cook, and admonished her to avoid temptation and embrace love and forgiveness, in that order.

Now, Paulette’s twenty-nine and within reach of her dream: a wedding, a baby, and a little house. She’s got the man, handsome Denton, and a good job as an assistant nurse. But when tragedy strikes, her baby comes from Denton’s friend, a relationship that can’t last. Soon it’s just Paulette, grieving the life she almost had, and her son, Bird. It seems like enough, until another boy, the same age as Bird, appears. Now, there’s someone new to take under wing and worry about, someone who calls her Sweet Pea and makes her laugh.

Through friendships, motherhood, and connections that emerge in the most unexpected places, Paulette discovers strength in everyday acts of kindness.

A luminous and lyrical novel of the trials of life and the compassion that can follow, Sweet Pea introduces readers to an indelible heroine who never turns away from her capacity to love. (Credit: St. Martin’s Press)

Her Rising Flame by Cliodhna O’Sullivan

Éadha is on the run, having narrowly escaped the cruel grip of the Master Channellers. Relentlessly hunted, she is pushed to the very edge of her world—a place of ancient magic and long-held secrets where she must create a new life for herself in ways she never imagined.

Ionáin is forced to come to terms with the fact that he has no power, nor did he ever. Imprisoned deep in the Fodder holds, he faces the stark reality of what it means to be an enemy of the Masters as he tries to make sense of his future . . . with or without Éadha.

Gry finds himself walking a dangerous line between protecting his Family’s secret legacy and being true to his feelings for Éadha. With his newly revealed powers, he must train with the Masters he despises and find some way to destroy the very system that makes him elite—before that system can destroy Éadha.

Told from three perspectives, Her Rising Flame is a whirlwind sequel of world-shattering secrets, wrenching heartache, and the terrible consequences of power. (Credit: Viking Books for Young Readers)

Stations by Louise Kennedy

In 1980s Ireland, Róisín and Red bond as only two precocious and disaffected teenagers can. Soon he is privy to the secret source of her shame and anger: the father who’s abandoned her and her mother to their damp house and never-ending strife. But what does Róisín know about why Red avoids going home to his own posh parents and house—the house he soon flees forever?

When a Christmas visit to her father reveals the devastating truth of his new life in London, Róisín tracks down Red and moves into his Pimlico squat. But the path he is now on is a disturbing one, and gradually they drift apart. And yet the great, never-consummated passion of her youth remains a visitation upon the years that follow. Will Róisín ever stop longing for Red? Will she ever learn to let someone else love her—or learn to love herself?

Stations is a gorgeous, wrenching novel about the terrible—and sometimes redemptive—power with which the past hovers over the present. (Credit: Riverhead Books)

N Vol. 1 by Kurumuakumu

The disappearance of five middle school boys.

The slaughter of an elementary school class.

A grisly car crash claiming two victims.

And left behind at every crime scene–the letter N.

Urban legends spread like wildfire, pointing to the obscure Cult of N as the only possible culprit.

But it fell into ruin two thousand years ago.

so what is N? (Credit: Yen Press)

Sickness Unto Love Yuki Shasendo

More than 150 deaths across Japan have been linked to Blue Morpho, a game of escalating tasks ultimately leading to suicide.

The mastermind behind it is Kei Yosuga, a high schooler admired by everyone around her.

Kei’s childhood friend, Nozomu Miyamine, knows this all started with one murder that would change both of their fates forever, but still, he wonders how this incredible girl could have become such a monster.

Yet if there is one thing Nozomu knows, it is this: He will never stop loving her. (Credit: Avocado House)

The Drakon King by Terry J. Benton-Walker

Two princes, born to rival kingdoms.

Heir to a kingdom built on lies, Prince Reverie has one goal: avoid the crown. So when Reverie sees an opportunity to escape a life of pain and cruelty, he takes it and runs.

Heir to a kingdom banished into the sky, Prince Xandreth has one goal: find out why his people are going missing, abandoning his kingdom to find the truth, no matter the cost.

A meeting that was never meant to be.

On the run, pursued by both kingdoms and wild creatures, the princes meet. Xandreth can’t trust a party boy to help find the answers he seeks and Reverie has been taught to hate and fear Xandreth’s people since he was born, but the only way forward is for Reverie to break his vow to never return home. And for both of them to trust the other with their lives.

A love that could change the world.

But as truths come to light, a myth as old as the world comes to light, as well. A bird on fire and a world turning to ash.

Reverie and Xandreth are suddenly at the heart of a crisis—and a love—neither can afford to ignore.

Together they must claim the power they left behind and change their world.

Or watch it burn.

Perfect for fans of Crescent City, When the Moon Hatched, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Fourth Wing, and the world of Blade Runner. (Credit: Bramble)

Before I Disappear by Cate Quinn

If she can’t remember, her memories might not be the only thing that goes missing.

When criminologist April Anderson wakes in an unfamiliar hotel room with no memory of how she got there — or why she fled her comfortable life in New York– she’s told she’s under police protection, the only witness to a horrific crime.

With no memories and no answers to her repeated questions, April isn’t sure who to trust — the cop guarding her, or the fiancé secretly tracking her. As April sifts through the wreckage of her own memories, she uncovers a version of herself she doesn’t recognize, and secrets she’d rather forget.

As the trial date closes in, April realizes someone else wants her silent. Her missing memories aren’t just the key to the case, they might be keeping her alive. Will she remember the truth… or disappear forever? (Credit: Sourcebooks Landmark)

The Armchair Detectives by Matt Dunn

They might be over the hill but they’re far from six feet under and now there’s a murder to solve! Meet Martin Maxwell. As a former government operative, at eighty-four-years young he always pictured a retirement sipping shaken-not-stirred martinis on a far-flung island. But in need of some care after a new hip, he finds himself at Twilight Lodge on the decidedly cloudy English coast.

From the outside, it’s a picture-perfect place to recuperate. But when popular resident Elsie dies unexpectedly, Martin suspects foul play. She’s the third death in less than two weeks and always had a clean bill of health. Armed with a walking stick and his trusty notebook and pen, Martin decides to investigate. While nobody believes him–death is an inevitable part of care home life after all–Martin is convinced something sinister is afoot.

With his wheelchair-using sidekick and former nemesis Albie in tow, they begin questioning the residents. Soon they learn that there are several suspects in the frame. When they discover Albie’s love interest Barbara is in the killer’s sights, Martin knows time is running out. Will Albie’s heart be broken forever, or can they battle the effects of old age and each other, outwitting a murderer before it’s too late? (Credit: Grand Central Publishing)

No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara

It’s a hot, sticky August morning on the London Underground platform. Sive pushes through the rush hour crowds and her two young daughters jump on the train ahead of her. As she tries to join them, the doors slide shut and the train moves away, leaving her behind. Frantic, Sive signals for them to get off at the next stop.

The four minutes until the next train are the most terrifying of her life. When she finally reaches the following stop, Sive expects her daughters will be waiting for her. But on the platform, she truly begins to panic: Only one child is standing there.

Has her other daughter gotten lost? Been taken by a passing stranger?

Or perhaps the culprit is closer to home than Sive thinks. No one is telling the truth, and the longer the search continues, the harder she will be to find. . . . (Credit: Penguin Books)

Hide and Seek by Andrea Mara

The game of hide and seek is over, and everyone has gone home, but Lily Murphy hasn’t been found. Her parents search the woods and try to stay positive, but their daughter remains missing despite all rescue efforts. For the Murphys, life as they know it will never be the same again.

Years later, Joanna and Mark Stedman move into a new neighborhood; it seems the perfect place to raise their three kids—until they learn that Lily Murphy used to live in their house. From that moment onwards, a sense of dread seems to follow Joanna from room to room.

As Joanna unravels the secrets at the heart of this close-knit community, her own dark past begins to resurface. Because Joanna thinks she knows what really happened to Lily—and if the truth gets out, it might be her undoing… (Credit: Penguin Books)

How To Hate a Prince by Jozette Allah-Mensah

Scammed out of her dream internship. Nearly run over by a royal entourage. Things can’t get much worse for Grace Curtis, who just wanted to enjoy her summer abroad. . .

Grace’s idea of paradise? The clear blue skies and glittering seas of Greece. Or so she thought. When her perfect summer becomes a perfect nightmare, Grace is desperate to stay. She came to Greece to honor her mom’s last wish, and she needs to see it through.

Prince Dimitri has finally pushed his royal title to the limit. Stuck in a whirlpool of bad press following the death of his older brother, he’s about to lose any chance at calling himself King unless he gets married. But the broody bad boy locked his heart away long ago, with no plans of sharing the key.

That is, until he nearly runs Grace over during a daring escape from the paparazzi, blasting them onto the front page of tabloids everywhere. Thrown into a whirlwind fake engagement, the two must appear head-over-heels for the cameras, or risk losing everything they think they want.

But when a moment of connection around love and loss leads to confusion behind the scenes, suddenly their futures aren’t so clear. As real feelings blossom beneath the act, they must decide, when the camera flashes fade, are they really still pretending? (Credit: Harlequin)

How To Be Hopeful by Caitlin Moran

Waking up from another anxious night of sleep, doomscrolling on your phone, feeling the familiar thud of dread in your chest as you watch the news: Sound familiar? One morning, Caitlin Moran awakes and realizes that she has reached Peak Despair. In a world of worsening news, increasing tribalism and digital addiction, is it any wonder that we all feel so terrible? So, Caitlin wonders: what might be done?

She starts with a Big Plan to escape to the country. But, after nearly bankrupting her family in an ill-advised bid to escape societal doom, Caitlin realizes that true change starts not by escaping our circumstances, but by reckoning with ourselves. If we step back from the algorithm and take care of ourselves and each other, might amazing change be possible?

And so, ditching the news, eschewing social media, and throwing herself into the analogue world just beyond our screens, Caitlin shows how recognizing the goodness in the everyday can be a radical act of rebellion against the fear and anxiety of modern life. From the magic of becoming a renegade litter-picker to the joy of finding exercise that your body loves, How to Be Hopeful is an essential, serotonin-boosting companion for anyone looking to reclaim their optimism amidst global chaos, reminding us that our own revolution of hope is never far away. (Credit: Harper Perennial)

Book Meets World: The Definitive Inside Story of the Hit Sitcom Boy Meets World by Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle

Rider Strong (Author)

The actors who played Topanga, Shawn, and Eric on Boy Meets World expand on their hit podcast, Pod Meets World, in a nostalgic behind-the-scenes history of the much-loved 90s sitcom, featuring untold stories and never-before-seen photos.

Boy Meets World ran from 1993 to 2000, ushering its audience of tweens and teens into the new millennium. Over the course of its seven seasons, viewers fell in love with Cory Matthews and his friends and family—rooting for Topanga and Cory, brooding with Shawn, learning from Mr. Feeny, and laughing at the increasingly over-the-top character that was Eric. Today, the show continues to evoke warm feelings of nostalgia over a quarter of a century after it ended.

Building on their incredibly successful podcast, Pod Meets World, Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle are here to share what it was like behind the scenes of the hit sitcom. The three podcast co-hosts and former cast members revisited the show they grew up on by watching the episodes (most of them for the first time ever) and interviewing dozens of the people who worked on Boy Meets World. And now they’ve written down all the memories—from hidden lobsters to prank wars to on-set notes sessions to castings that almost happened, and so much more.

Reading Book Meets World is a glimpse behind the curtain from three friends who were there when it all happened, just as warm and funny an experience as watching the show for the very first time.

• Heartwarming Nostalgia: These three friends starred on Boy Meets World but only recently watched every episode for the first time. Their journey through the series they helped make is one of laughter, sweet memories, and even some tears. Join them as they rediscover and embrace the 90s sitcom so many love.
• Behind-the-Scenes Stories: From inside jokes that showed up on screen to epic notes sessions to laughter and tears on set, rediscover this fan-favorite sitcom with inside stories pulled from Pod Meets World interviews of the cast and crew, as well as brand-new interviews exclusive to this book.
• Never-Before-Seen Photos: Through dozens of personal photos from the set, including some that have never been shared before, get a nostalgic and candid look behind the scenes. (Credit: Hanover Square Press)

No Such Thing as Monday by Siân Hughes

Foul-mouthed, scrappy, and self-destructive, Steffie is her own worst enemy. Sustained by her sardonic sense of humor, she spends her days working at a dry cleaner and tending to her ailing, impoverished, abusive father. She was always his favorite, a fact that leaves her racked with guilt; her sister, Caroline, who bore the brunt of his rage, fled when they were both teenagers.

When her father dies, Steffie sets out to find Caroline, seeking love and forgiveness in a world that has too often denied her both. Along the way, she must confront her own memories, and the choices that have brought her to this point.

Written in the working-class British realist tradition of Douglas Stuart and Andrea Arnold, No Such Thing as Monday cements Siân Hughes’s reputation as an exceptional and compassionate chronicler of precarious and chaotic lives. (Credit: Henry Holt and Co.)

Gideon’s Ring by Carin Gerhardsen

Dawn, Stockholm’s Hammarby neighborhood. A naked young woman is spotted by the side of the road. Later, she shows up outside piano technician John Gideon’s apartment, unable to tell anyone who she is or what has happened to her. The neighbors tell stories of girls—dozens of them—that have walked in and out of his place for several years. And John Gideon is not opening his door.

An already-puzzling case for Hammarby detective Conny Sjöberg and his team soon becomes even more intricate with a fatal assault and the discovery of a dead infant. And as the tension mounts, the cracks within the force begin to show. With his colleagues’ long-festering conflicts and long-buried secrets rising to the fore, Conny Sjöberg struggles to stay neutral and close the case before it destroys the department.

A dark, complex tale told from multiple perspectives, Gideon’s Ring blends gripping psychological suspense with a tense procedural plot. It is the fifth novel in the acclaimed internationally bestselling Hammarby series, which can be read in any order. (Credit: The Mysterious Press)

The Revolution of Olivia Witherson by S. Isabelle

Olivia Witherson has it all figured out. Once she’s married to Samuel Desir, a handsome (and rich) businessman in the making, she’ll be able to step into the life of upper-class comfort she’s always known she’s destined for. Getting kidnapped by a gang of ruffians and being held for ransom in their grubby headquarters on the outskirts of Paris… was not part of the plan.

Olivia is sure that Jac Santil, head of the Saints Tristes gang, is the most loathsome, infuriating person she’s ever met. But the longer she spends with the Saints, the more good she sees them doing–distributing food and medicine to the poor, taking in orphaned children, and organizing the exploited laborers of Paris, the same workers who staff Samuel’s factories. Soon, Olivia must acknowledge that there may be more to the Saints, and to Jac, than meets the eye, and that the life of luxury she’d always dreamed of may never come to fruition. (Credit: HarperCollins)

And If I Die Before I Wake by George M. Johnson

George M. Johnson

George M. Johnson is no stranger to death. In this debut adult memoir, readers are invited to witness untrodden ground as George navigates an HIV diagnosis, alcoholism, tremendous loss, and nationwide book bans over the span of 15 years. Through the highs and lows of life in the spotlight, they have clung to family and community like never before — finding their most authentic self along the way.

Drawing inspiration from Toni Morrison, Jesmyn Ward, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, And If I Die Before I Wake explores grief, trauma, sexuality, and the Black family through the lens of transformation, healing, and hope. Poetic, grounded, and bursting with signature humor, this is New York Times-bestselling author George M. Johnson more bold, more brave, and more daring than ever — ready to share a new part of their journey with the world. (Credit: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR))

When They Find Me by Carter Wilson

Some secrets don’t fade. They hunt.

Expanse, Colorado. Population 313. A town so remote it barely exists on a map–the perfect hiding place for Annie Wolfe and her daughter, Coral. Their cabin is nearly off the grid, and Annie has done everything to keep them safe. Everything. But she knows the people hunting her don’t forget. And they don’t forgive.

Riven knows about survival. She and her family have lived off the land for years, moving like shadows through the wilderness. Now her father has led them to this forgotten town, tracking the man he swears destroyed their lives. The plan is simple: strike fast, take revenge, and disappear.

But when Riven knocks on Annie’s door, their worlds collide. What follows is darker, stranger, and more dangerous than either woman ever imagined–because the hunt isn’t just for vengeance. It’s for the truth. And in Expanse, Colorado, the truth can kill. (Credit: Poisoned Pen Press)

Ghosted by Talia Tucker

What if you got ghosted and had the chance to do the funniest thing by haunting him right back? What if it consumed your every waking thought like a girl possessed, fighting for brain space with your sleep paralysis demon and your first serious girl crush?

What then???

Keziah is very familiar with ghosts—after all, a sleep paralysis demon has been her closest companion for the last few years, and she’s constantly getting ghosted. Which isn’t really helping her get a date for the Homecoming dance. And then she meets a guy who just transferred to the all-boys school nearby. He’s charming, cute, and—unlike with her other dates—she actually sees potential with him.

Too bad he ghosts her, too.

This time, though, she isn’t going to take it so easily. Not when Guy and his friends mess with her real true love, Mr. Kim’s food truck, and especially not when she finds out the real reason Guy transferred in the first place. If he wants to ghost, she’ll haunt him right back to where he came from.

Enacting revenge while her sleep paralysis demon keeps bugging her certainly won’t be easy but, with help from a cute girl, let the real (and well-deserved) ghosting begin! (Credit: Feiwel & Friends)

The Telephone: A New History by James Gleick

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell spoke the words “Mr. Watson—come here—I want to see you” into a contraption he called the telephone, and for the first time a voice was carried along a wire. This feat has long been celebrated as a triumph of individual ingenuity and vision. In fact, the invention was a contest replete with bribery, fraud, and speculation, and no one, not even its inventors, realized what it was good for or how ubiquitous it would become.

Over the next century, the phone would prove less an invention than a continuous revolution. It would teach us new words (starting with the once-unfamiliar “hello” and “goodbye”) and a new way to speak, with instant reaction, instant feeling, instant possibilities. It would create an all-female profession—the operator—that by 1920 outnumbered nurses and waitresses put together. It would enable the skyscraper, the world war, the assembly line, and the multinational corporation. And the Bell System would become the largest monopoly in history: the sole owner of every phone in America. The science that Bell Labs created around the telephone, from pulsing wires to glowing vacuum tubes to the electronic transistor, would usher in the Information Age.

Along the way, the telephone changed human nature. It augmented our bodies, a prosthetic extension of mouth and ear. It gave us the party line, the busy signal, dial tones, wiretapping, the late-night D.J., and the booty call. It magnified the possibilities of government, of business, of friendship, of love.

For a while, the revolution was so successful that it made telephones themselves seem natural, eternal. They settled into the background, on bedside tables, desks, and kitchen walls; in subways and on corners; in novels, movies, songs, and on TV. No one could remember life without them.

Today we are more dependent than ever on little objects called phones, although their ability to make “telephone calls” is incidental. The phone book and the phone booth may be vanishing from memory, but as James Gleick shows, the telephone’s legacy is deeply ingrained—in our networks and our sophistication about networks, in the primacy of information, in the need for connection. Gleick is celebrated for his uncanny ability to make complex ideas vivid, understandable, and concrete. In The Telephone: A New History, he gives us a revelation: a story of technological breakthroughs that is also a universal history of intimate life. (Credit: Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Two Can Play That Game by Zakiya N. Jamal

Expected Publication Date: November 17

Chelsea has never cared about sports. But when she’s invited to sit courtside at a New York Rebels game, she welcomes the break from her usual routine. What she doesn’t expect is a basketball nearly colliding with her face—or the six-foot-four hottie who jogs over, flashing a heart-stopping grin, to retrieve it.

Adrienne “AD” Daniels is a player on and off the court, notorious for their inability to stay in a relationship. Still, something about Chelsea sticks with them—even though their instant connection can’t bring AD to offer more than one night.

But AD’s agent makes a pitch: Chelsea should pretend to be AD’s girlfriend. It’s a strategic move. AD, hoping to retire after this season, needs to lock down some brand deals—but their identity as a Black, nonbinary lesbian with a messy dating history makes sponsors wary. Chelsea, a sex-positive influencer, is ready to take her platform to a new level, and this feels like the perfect next step. With Chelsea’s network and AD’s star power, they could both strengthen their public images. Once the season ends, they’ll go their separate ways.

As the ruse starts to work and their connection deepens, Chelsea finds herself on unsteady ground. Falling for AD wasn’t part of the plan, and if she follows through, she just might lose her heart and the future she’s finally starting to build. (Credit: Berkley)

The Trusted by Marisa De Los Santos

Expected Publication Date: November 17

A deliciously candid and juicy exploration of platonic and romantic fixations, heartbreak, and the allure of horses.

What happens when the ones we trust the most betray us?

In the charming, tight-knit community of Sheppley, Pennsylvania, Detective Lina Cordova and her partner Aaron Cash are still reeling from their failure to get justice for Tally Frost–wife, grieving mother, and Sheppley society queen who disappeared a year earlier–when another high-profile case hits their desks.

A body is discovered in a remote hunting cabin, shot through the head. The victim was a man plagued by a controversy that once rocked Sheppley to its core. There is no shortage of suspects, and they include people Cordova and Cash know well, which makes it even more difficult to distinguish truth from lies.

The daughter of a Filipino doctor and a mother from an old-money Sheppley family, Ivy League-educated Lina Cordova is acutely aware of the social dynamics and prejudices of her hometown, while young Aaron Cash is a recent transplant, an escapee from an abusive home life in rural Tennessee. As their twisty search for the truth takes them to ever darker and more complex places, the two are forced to grapple with their own painful losses, as well as impossibly hard questions: How far would we go for the people we love? Are some secrets better left hidden? Can murder itself be a form of justice? (Credit: Blackstone Publishing)

Baby Queen by Ty Landers

Expected Publication Date: November 17

When a queen bee can no longer do her job, the worker bees will kill her, producing a new baby queen.

A perfectly preserved but very dead body is found in a barrel of honey, and the town of Noccalula, Alabama, will never be the same.

Natalie Link has inherited the family honey farm from her beloved grandmother Lana, who raised Nat after her mother ran off to Los Angeles chasing stardom. But it turns out Nat has no idea what Lana has been hiding in the hives. Is Nat up to running what turns out to be a business enterprise of questionable repute? Suddenly she is caught between her grandmother’s very frightening partners and the ex-cop with a grudge who’s been looking into her family since she was a kid.

Bob Sauk torpedoed his once promising law enforcement career chasing a lead he couldn’t prove. He has always believed that Lana Link was a murderer. Will he finally get the chance to prove he was right all along? And what happens when Nat’s Hollywood star mom returns to town after twenty-five years?

Full of secrets, murder, and Alabama fried frog legs, Baby Queen is a sharp-as-a-blade tale of family crime. (Credit: Harper Perennial)

Witch and Hound Vol. 1 by Rainy Kamitsuki

Expected Publication Date: November 24

Amelia, the land of dragons with a monopoly on magical power, is once again invading other lands with the ferocious Queen Amelia at its head.

Her eyes are set on Campusfellow, the small land of fire and iron, which at this rate will inevitably fall.

For the sake of the country’s survival, lord Bud Grace comes up with a last-resort plan–to ally with the one known only as the Witch, the subject of countless terrifying tales.

With the assassin Rollo, known as “Black Dog” and versed in every method of killing, at their disposal, they set out to enter an alliance with the first witch, also known as the Mirror Witch. (Credit: Yen Press)

For The Love of K-Dramas by Lyla Lee

Expected Publication Date: November 24

The real heat is behind the scenes.

Clara Kim doesn’t give up easily. The aspiring K-drama star loves challenging expectations–in her personal life, in her career, and on social media. But despite winning awards and garnering glowing reviews, she’s struggling to land a breakout role. So when Clara gets a shot at the lead in a buzzy romantasy project, she won’t let anyone stand in her way…especially not Shin Min-joon.

Min-joon, a superstar with an annoyingly perfect face, is Clara’s most vocal critic online. Now, he’s also her co-star, and just as broody and aloof as she expected him to be. But between the long days on set–and the even longer nights off–their smoldering animosity sparks into something else entirely. Clara and Min-joon won’t have a problem convincing audiences their chemistry is real, but can they convince themselves it’s not? (Credit: Forever)

The First Ladies Guide to Murder by Amanda Flower

Expected Publication Date: November 24

1894, Washington: This is not the kind of homecoming Nellie Grant hoped for. The only daughter of former President Ulysses S. Grant, Nellie has left England after being granted a divorce from her abusive husband. She plans to hide away with her three children at the home of her mother, Julia Dent Grant. However, Julia, the unofficial queen mother of Washington’s elite, has other ideas—and convinces Nellie to attend a White House dinner in honor of the current president, Grover Cleveland.

The lavish event turns somber when First Lady Frances Cleveland discovers that her prized Tiffany brooch is missing. Young maid Kitty Thorn is accused of theft and dismissed on the spot. The next morning, Kitty is found drowned, her death ruled a suicide.

Frances calls upon Nellie and Julia to implore them for help. She doesn’t believe Kitty stole the brooch—or committed suicide. She believes Kitty was framed and murdered. For while the authorities deem the victim a woman of no consequence, despite her lowly status, Kitty saw and knew a great deal. She was a keeper of secrets—and in the capital, every secret has a price.

Nellie especially feels a tie to Kitty, who years ago did her a kindness that she hopes to repay by finding her killer. But the risks will be great, for this crime has ramifications for all the First Ladies . . . (Credit: Kensington)

He Was My Brother Vol. 1 by Minoru Matsuda

Expected Publication Date: November 24

In the high heat of summer, Kanoko visits her brother’s grave.

By her side is Hijiri, her brother’s lover–and the man she has fallen in love with.

But memories aren’t the only things that can haunt the living.

This is the story of the twisted love between a girl, her brother’s partner, and the thing that was once her brother. (Credit: Yen Press)

Long Wave by Daisy Johnson

Expected Publication Date: November 24

Found alone on a remote island as a toddler, Ori grows up mired in the mystery of what happened to the young mother who left her. When Ori welcomes a child of her own, years later, maternal doubt creeps in. As sleepless nights slacken her grip on reality, she travels back through memory to that stormy island, waiting in the shadow of a beaconless lighthouse, straining hopefully for the sound of her mother’s return.

In ways she doesn’t yet understand, Ori’s unraveling binds her to her mother and grandmother, whose lives were also shaped by the brutal intimacies of motherhood. But can exhuming the past alter the future? Is Ori’s fate—and the fate of her child—intractably tethered to the secrets of those who came before her?

Set in the uncanny, coastal England of Daisy Johnson’s imagination, Long Wave immerses the reader in a physical landscape reflective of the novel’s intense, interior drama. With the hypnotic language, ferocious emotion, and inventive imagery she is known for, Johnson offers a masterfully layered and moving story that looks beyond traditional understandings of family to examine the many elemental forces of generation and transplantation that graft us to one another. (Credit: Riverhead Books)

Murder at Enscombe Park by Vanessa Kelly

Expected Publication Date: November 24

Emma, her husband George, and her father and his new wife have journeyed to Enscombe Park, the grand estate where Jane and Frank live with his uncle, who adopted Frank as a boy.  Upon their arrival, they are concerned to find Jane wan from her condition, Frank bruised from a mysterious accident, and Mr. Churchill in an ill temper, as well as surprised by additional houseguests including Miss Caroline Bingley and a distant cousin from the West Indies.

Emma worries this might all be too much for Jane, but it is Mr. Churchill who is decidedly out-of-sorts, possibly due to his heart medication. When Frank’s uncle is found dead in the library, it appears he’s fallen victim to heart seizure. But Emma—despite George’s admonitions to stay out of it—begins to wonder if he may have been poisoned.

Experience has taught Emma that her matchmaking instincts may not always be spot-on, but her sleuthing skills are as sharp as ever. As a recently altered will and secret debts come to light, suspicion falls on Frank Churchill of all people. Now it’s up to Emma to save her friend’s husband from the gallows . . . (Credit: Kensignton)

Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley and illustrated by Felia Hanakata

Expected Publication Date: November 24

Can the love that blossomed in their junior year survive a senior year that’s pulling them in different directions?

A month ago, Gabby Graciana and her family left Durham, North Carolina to return back to their lives in Miami, Florida. For Gabby, that meant leaving behind her girlfriend Neesha Sparks. But they swore to keep up the tradition that brought them together—their manga book club.

But not every manga can be the right one at the right time, and they find themselves flailing for a next book. They discover that their favorite mangaka is working with a studio to produce an anime of one of her other stories, so book club chats become anime watch parties. But that’s not the only thing in their lives that is changing.

An ex from Gabby’s past returns to her life in an unexpected way as Neesha, finally comfortable in her North Carolina town, rediscovers her passion for activism—and a new group of activist friends that she might have more in common with than her now long-distance girlfriend. (Credit: Maverick)

Egg: I’m Your Child, Vol. 1 by Sino Torino

Sino Torino (Author)

Expected Publication Date: November 24

In the year 20XX, to accompany the declining birth rate and the legalization of gay marriage, a new form of payment is legalized: the donation of a third party’s eggs or sperm.

In this world where anyone, no matter who they are, can have a child using another person’s eggs or sperm as compensation, what does it truly mean to be a “family? (Credit: Yen Press)

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